Interdisciplinary artist Sanford Biggers (MFA 1999) mines the history and symbols of global cultures to make videos, installations, sculptures, music, and performances—work that “…doesn’t get stuck in that backward-looking process but creates a third entity that becomes a gateway into a deeper or new understanding or envisioning,” according to a 2012 interview with BOMB magazine.

He first received critical attention when his collaborative work with David Ellis, Mandala of the B-Bodhisattva II, was included in the exhibition, Freestyle at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2001.

Since then, Biggers has exhibited work at the Tate Modern, the Renaissance Society, and the Whitney Biennial. His works are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, Whitney Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and Bronx Museum. He has had solo exhibitions at Mass MoCA and Brooklyn Museum of Art among other institutions. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, such as the William H. Johnson Prize in 2009.

Biggers was born in Los Angeles, but lives and works in New York. He received his BA from Morehouse College in 1992 and his MFA from SAIC in 1999 and currently is Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Visual Arts program.